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Ermine Calloway
Ermine Calloway ---- Ermine Calloway was a singer from Texas known as The Texas Tomboy who recorded for Edison in early 1929. Ermine was dubbed a vivacious "baby vamp" singer for the Edison recording family. She was a stage and radio star, and at one point was radio's only girl flyer. For most of the late 1920s, Calloway was a Dallas area singer mostly known for her performances of Negro spirituals over local radio stations WRR and WFAA. Her radio exposure caught her the attention of multiple New York based record labels. When Calloway arrived at Edison's New York studios in January 1929 to make her first recordings, the company was in the middle of a last-ditch effort to save its record business. With great fanfare Edison publicists promoted Calloway as "The Tomboy From Texas" and had her record "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" style vocals as Edison's answer to Helen Kane's successful recordings on Victor. Calloway continued to perform on radio up until late 1931. She then gave up show business and took a job at a New York City advertising agency where she worked until moving back to Dallas in 1941. One of the "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" songs she used to sing on radio was called "Boop-Boop-Bo-Do." Sings for Clubmen (1928) Ermine Calloway's non baby-talk singing style was based on black performers. She also used to sing plantation songs. According to a 1928 article, Miss Ermine Calloway, of 412 Ocean avenue, was one of the guests of honor at the weekly luncheon and business meeting of the New York Exchange Club in the East Room of the Hotel McAlpin, Manhattan. At that event she sang a number of negro spirituals and southern plantation melodies. Ermine Calloway the Texas Tomboy (1929) Ermine Calloway, the Texas Tomboy and baby blues singer who will be heard in the Old Fashioned Radio Revue presented by Wendell Hall. Ermine Calloway and Harriet Lee (1929) In 1929, Ermine used to sing on radio with Harriet Lee. Lee later went on to lend her voice to Betty Boop as Dangerous Nan McGrew in the 1931 Talkartoon titled The Bum Bandit. Boop-Boop-a-Doop Recordings *"Is There Anything Wrong in That?" *"I Want to Be Bad" *"Do Something" *"That's Him Now" *"Give Your Little Baby Lots of Lovin'" *"Good Little Bad Little You" *"I Wanna Be Loved By You" *"I Ain't Got Nobody" *"Just Cuttin' Up" *"Some of These Days" *"How Come You Do Me Like You Do?" *"Better Be Good to Yourself" *"I'm Happy" *I'm the Baby for You" *"Say That You Love Me" *"Boop-Boop-Bo-Do" Trivia *Ermine also used to duet with Billy Murray, the original voice of Bimbo the dog. *She was known to still be alive in the mid-1970s, and appeared at one of the reunions of former Edison Artists which took place. *Her last known place of residence was Dallas Texas. *Her name was pronounced "Er-minny." *Calloway's friends encouraged her to sign up with Edison Records. This later turned out to be a very poor advice. By the late 1920s Edison Records lost a lot of money over the years with sales of its records declining to extremely low levels. The only thing that had kept the label going was Edison's name. *Ermine is related to the Callaway family, there was once an article featured on the site on her life and also rare audio footage of one of her later reunion performances. ---- Category:People Category:Ermine Calloway Category:The Texas Tomboy Category:The Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl Category:Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl